Article

Just a Little Guy Who Got Hit by the Arms Truck

By
Eric Guthey

Vol. 10, No. 3, 1988, p. 3

I RAISED MY children according to the principle that if you see
something that's not right," you report it, says Bob Fletcher, the
former Marietta, Ga., toymaker who says his company was taken over by
arms merchants with ties to the secret team.

Fletcher's story begins in 1985, a full year and a half before the
Iran contra story became public knowledge. "There's no way that I
could have dreamed this stuff up and and
[sic]
have it come true
a year and a half later," he now insists.

Fletcher recounts how Gary Best bought out his toy company and kept
him on to run the business. Soon Fletcher started to notice Telex
messages from locations like Angola and Pakistan. His new associate
was forever flying to Geneva, Switzerland, and to other countries and
never seemed to spend any time on the toy business. Eventually
Fletcher confronted Best and asked how he made his money. "Without
batting an eye, he said, 'I sell armaments,'" Fletcher recalls.

Fletcher now believes that Best let him in on many of his dealing
activities with the intent to recruit him. "All of these different
covert actions--Angola, Pakistan, Nicaragua, POW/MIA missions, the
Rambo-type stuff--all of this was being coordinated out of my company
by Gary Best."

At a certain point, retired Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, who has since
been indicted in the Iran-Contra affair, became a consultant to the
company. Bill Kenney, an associate of Oliver North, also came in and
out frequently.

Finally, Best asked Fletcher to run courier missions to Angola--at
a salary of $2,000 per trip. Fletcher says Best told him if he talked
to the wrong people about the operation he would be killed. Fletcher
declined the offer and Best forced him out of the company after he
complained about the shady goings-on.

Fletcher eventually contacted the Congressional Iran-Contra
committees to tell them about what he knew. But two of the committees'
investigators, Thomas Polgar and Bob Bermingham, seemed to have no
interest in Fletcher's story or in its relation to the Iran-Contra
affair. "Polgar and Bermingham are old-time employees of (Thomas)
Clines and (Edmund) Wilson, and of Singlaub and (Theodore) Shackley
[all alleged members of the Secret Team and defendants in Christic's
lawsuit]," Fletcher points out.

Fletcher is committed to making his story heard. "I'm not a
radical--I'm just a little guy that got run over by these
bastards," he says. "But people have to understand what is
going on here. They lied to the Senate, they lied to the public, and
they're still doing whatever they please."